Manifesto: The Resistance of Truth and Love

Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

In the summer jobs. In the cars having fun on weekends with friends.
Sitting in those movies and staying up way too late making memories.
In every classroom, every shopping mall, every freaking bathroom.
That’s where we are. An unrecruited army. All of us. We are the resistance.

Ask yourself what you would think of the following military force:
The enemy has taken over every major base, stolen all of their battle plans and made comedy of them, converted a majority of its soldiers to their side, and made a majority of those remaining into willless drones. I am quite sure that you would rightly question the competence of this force, and possibly marvel at the dominance of the enemy force. Well, this is precisely what has happened in our battle with a depraved world. We are the failing fighting force, and this should not be. Now that I have explained what we are, let’s chat about what we are called to be: the resistance. Put your big kid pants on.

“Radical”. We’ve been trained that this is an awful, negative term, symptomatic of a lunatic or unstable person that we should ignore as a “loon”. Now there are certainly realms in which radicalism is negative. We see radical liberalism in the political sphere, and it is extremely harmful, abusing and insulting constitutional principles in the name of…ahem…”justice and equality.” There is radicalism in the animal rights movement that likens the slaughter of cows and pigs to the death of 6 million humans during the holocaust. Radical Islam has a tendency to blow up children because, you know, God told them to. Obviously not all radicalism is good. But as Christ followers, we should be self identified as “radicals”. Writing in 2 Corinthians, Paul ensures that there is no mistake: we are charged to go on the offensive in a radical manner. He writes:

“The weapons we fight with are not worldly. On the contrary, we have the power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-6

This empowering passage makes it devastatingly clear that we must be fighters. No doubt “demolishing strongholds” and “demolishing arguments” could get us inevitably branded as loud, obnoxious, outspoken, even, dare I say it…radical. Make no mistake, though. We must not lose sight of our love for people. That’s a tough line to toe in spiritual warfare, but Paul reminds us later in the same book, in 2 Corinthians 13:2 and 3, that “we can have a faith that moves mountains…but if I have not love, I gain nothing.” If we are not speaking the truth BECAUSE of our love for Jesus, and our desire to show Him to others, and simply shout truth in HATE, we fail, we fall. It’s not easy, but love must be the reason. That’s a tough one for me personally at times. The depravity and weakness, both within and outside the church, can make it easy for a man of powerful faith to go ballistic, run out his front door, fire his rifle and shout “what the hell is wrong with you people!?” This is not exactly the most effective method, tempting though it is. When we fail at showing love, we get up, learn from our shortcoming, dust ourselves off, and try to do it right next time.

Now, what does all this have to do with being the “resistance”?
1) How do we use spiritual warfare like Paul spoke about to “resist” a depraved world and culture?
2) How do we do go against the flow and retain our LOVE for those whose lives represent what we are trying to fight? Let’s take those one by one.

1) The way to resist a depraved culture is to take up the “weapons” Paul spoke of and surge against the current. We must make it known, through passion, conviction, study, and strength, that we are set apart. People should not know us for five minutes without noticing the fire within us. We must have our arguments fine tuned for battle, our hearts geared for objectivity and understanding, and our spirits united in this cause. We lack this vital element. There are many reasons for this, but a main contributor is, say, a bunch of faux-Christ followers, proclaiming their faith in their cute monkey suits on Sunday, then hurriedly throwing their cash into the community booze and whisky pool on Friday and Saturday, immediately turning the camouflage back on so that they might blend blissfully in with the masses of lost sheep. Great soldiers indeed. Just to kill an argument before it gets off the ground, let me say that I am referring to a lifestyle, not a lapse in judgment. All of us slip and sin. But unapologetically and pathologically engaging in a lifestyle IS very different than falling and getting back up. It’s staying down on the ground, and being okay with it…and that is a disease. In our resistance against this, we must always retain our love, but there is a point at which these people no longer have a place among the body of Christ. Don’t believe me? I’ll hand the floor over to the Apostle Paul once again.

1 Corinthians 5:11 states “…you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral, greedy, or an idolater, or a drunkard or a swindler. WITH SUCH A MAN DO NOT EVEN EAT.”

If those within the Body of Christ, those in our midst as Followers, insist upon living in a worldly fashion, we must acknowledge them as lost sheep, as souls to be won (or possibly re-won), in essence, as worldly, and try to get them back. I went on a bit of a tangent there, but that point is necessary to the cause of resistance to the world and its ways. We cannot stand if the foundation is not steady, or if there is a prominent “enemy within.”

In addition to battling this “enemy within” the Body, we must continue to put the truth of Christ in every public arena we possibly can. We must take up a banner of “No Compromise,” and show the world a passion and zeal for truth, and a desire to spread Christ’s truth and love too all places.

2) In the vein of love, let us explore how to be a militant bringer of truth, and still retain a Christ-like love for people. The solution to this dilemma comes under the flag of an old cliché. Nonetheless, let us keep in mind that clichés are clichés because they are usually true. “Hate the sin, love the sinner”. Whoever originally said this was in a rather favorable state of mind. The most common objection to this position is the argument that it does not work, because people “are what they do”. In the case of murderers and rapists, perhaps this is true. But in Christ we know that our sins DO NOT DEFINE US. Jesus takes our sin, and this drives a wedge between us and sin’s nature, propelling us into a unique individuality, undefined by our sin, but by Jesus Christ in us. Thus, we can militantly pursue and demolish sin and even sin nature (especially in those we love most), whilst loving the child of God in which the sin issue dwells.

I cited the passage earlier, and 2 Corinthians 13:2 and 3 are very clear in their message, that without love we have nothing. Loving them (“the sinner” in the cliché) means genuinely wanting what is best for THEM, not you. It means going out of the way for THEIR inner peace and inner truth. Pursue this “love objective” in a spirit of truth and conviction. Battle their demons alongside them. But keep in mind that some may not want to fight their personal demons. And at a certain point, that wish must be granted.

Without a doubt, fighting and battling for truth, whilst loving the lost, are among our highest calls. Let us prepare ourselves for it, brothers and sisters.

I could come up with “non-conformist” scenarios all night as I sit and type this, (with a little Coheed and Cambria playing lowly in the background…in case anyone appreciates that) but I’m not seeking any kind of creative objective. What you must understand is that, if no one has ever recruited you to fight on this side of the spiritual battle, the right side, I am recruiting you now, believers and non-believers alike. If you want to get active, shoot me an email with any questions. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. If God can use an undeserving loudmouth like me for his kingdom, he can use you. He may even help you grow, as he’s helping me, and so many others.

Who are the resistance? We are. Let’s light a fire under our asses and act like it. God Bless.

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